Webcam prices dropped to £4

MSE_Martin

UPDATE 28 March 8.22am. Unluckily Amazon choose this morning to change its prices (after the 'email send' button was pressed) , so the original Amazon £4 web cam is no longer available, yet there are still some good deals.

What's the deal?

Webcams have tumbled in price and you can now pick one up for under a tenner. They can be used to make video and voice calls via your PC and are especially great for calling friends and relatives abroad. For full info on how to call abroad free read Completely Free Calls Worldwide Via Your PC.

• Q-Tec Webcam 110 USB from web retailer 7dayshop.com, £4.49 + £3.95 delivery.
• QuickCam Express WebCam* from Amazon, £7.99 plus delivery (either £3.23 or free, see below) a basic cam
• Labtec Webcam from Microdirect, £5.86 + £3.40 delivery, another basic cam
• CreativeLive Cam Video* from Amazon, £25.60 (this was £7.99 until 8am this morning, a fantastic deal, and it was the reason I started this post, sadly the price has massively jumped). It includes a microphone, headset and comes with 30 minutes of free calls to any UK landlines via Skype.

Of course like any form of photography, increasing the spec gives you a higher quality picture, but here you are limited by the internet connection. Also while webcams are fun, they're mainly used for talking to kids when travelling (or grandparents), or web dating first meet ups - so don't assume you'll be on it all the time. Best to start with a cheap cam and see if you'll use it.

IF YOU SPOT A WEBCAM DEAL THAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED PLEASE REPORT IT BY CLICKING REPLY

How to get free delivery

If you have other Amazon purchases to make then provided you spend over £15 delivery is free, so its worth combining this with other purchases.

Other tips

• Team up with a mate. If both you and a friend want a webcam, pair up and order together. If a few of you do it you should get the free delivery.

• Amazon Filler Finder. This nifty tool, Amazon Filler Item Finder, allows you enter the amount you need to spend to get free delivery (ie the £15 limit) and will list matches closest to that price (usually within 1p).

Also read Amazon Cost Cutting Tips.

Martin

* Using these links helps the site stay ad-free and free to use, as they’re ‘affiliated links’ which invisibly take you via commercial price comparison services like Moneysupermarket or Find, which then pay this site per click

You shouldn’t notice any difference, the links don’t impact the product at all and the editorial line (the things I write) is NEVER impacted by the revenue. If it isn’t possible to get an affiliate link for the best product, it is still recommended and still included. The following amazon.co.uk and microdirect.com are identical unaffiliated links provided for the sake of transparency. Click on the following link for more details on how this site's financed.

VIJAY_FROM_KENT

Which webcam would people recommend? I want something cheap and cheerful but not so dark and grainy you cant make the person out, like my current one! :eek:

aris

Unfortunately you get what you pay for.

If you want a quality picture, you need a webcam with a CCD sensor instead of a CMOS one. The CMOS one (usually the chaper varieties of webcam have this) will work fine, but you will get grainy washed out pictures - even in good light.

Not all CMOS sensors are bad - all the top-end Canon digital SLR cameras use a CMOS sensor - but these quality CMOS sensors are _not_ used in cheap webcams.

squiggles

My son has just baught one of these for his laptop,im very impresed for the price.It has a sensored light built in too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000N3VAMG/203-9727619-7259923

dc

squiggles wrote: »

My son has just baught one of these for his laptop,im very impresed for the price.It has a sensored light built in too.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000N3VAMG/203-9727619-7259923

Is the sound via the usb lead? or do you have to plug a lead into the soundcard as well.

There are some 1.3 mp interpolated cameras on the Amazon site for £1.99,+ postage.

krishna

oh dear

the Quickcam is now £7.98 on Amazon and the creativelabs cam is up to £25.60.

debeast

Aye too slow in reading my emails As krishna says prices have gone up

Plushchris

Webcams in general suck, unless you buy an expensive one.

My top tip is to use a PS2 Eyetoy (they were available cheap in currys a while ago)

Quality is great although you do have to do a bit of tinkering to get the drivers for it, works a treat though!

beefster

My daughter wants a web cam but has the eyetoy on her PS2. How do i utilise this on the PC in another room.

I suppose its not as easy s plug it in and off you go.

Browntoa

guide here

http://www.iplayplaystation.com/eyetoy-as-webcam/

to making your eyetoy a webcam

roses

I have the quickcam express and quality is terrible. i have used it in several locations with different adsl providers and every time the camera shows a distorted picture after a few minutes.

the creative cam video is showing as £26 now!